The Approvals a New Factory Needs in India, in Order: Land to Energisation

A new factory in India clears its approvals in roughly this order: land use, environmental clearance where the project is listed, pollution board Consent to Establish, building plan, factory plan and fire scheme, then electrical inspection before energisation, and last the Consent to Operate, final fire NOC and factory licence. The order follows what each authority needs to see before it will sign.

What is the order, gate by gate?

The table lists the gates in the sequence most projects meet them. Several run in parallel, and state law changes the names and sometimes the order, so read it as a dependency map, not a calendar.

Why does land use and pollution category come first?

Because they decide whether the plan is possible at all. Check zoning, road width at the plot and whether the plot sits in a notified industrial estate. Then settle the pollution category. The Central Pollution Control Board revised its classification in January 2025 on a Pollution Index: above 80 is Red, 55 to 80 Orange, 25 to 55 Green and below 25 White, with a Blue category for essential environmental services. The Puducherry Gazette of 1 July 2025, which restates the method, treats White industries as exempt from Consent to Establish and Consent to Operate, with a self-declaration. Whether your state board has adopted the same treatment, and how it places your product, is for the board to confirm, so ask before you design the effluent and air systems.

Environmental clearance is separate and earlier. Paragraph 2 of the EIA Notification 2006 requires prior clearance for the projects in its Schedule before any construction or land preparation, other than securing the land. Check your product and capacity against the Schedule at feasibility stage. Our guide to environmental clearance explains when a factory is caught, and the pollution consent guide covers the board track.

How do the building plan, factory plan and fire scheme depend on each other?

They are three reviews of one building by three authorities, and the later approvals ask for the earlier ones by reference. Tamil Nadu's licence form asks for the reference number and date of the plan approval and of the effluent-disposal approval. Karnataka's plan-approval sheet asks for the pollution board's consent letter for factories with a hazardous process or storage, and for approval of the on-site emergency plan. If the earlier file is missing, the later one cannot be completed.

So the three sets of drawings must show the same building. Machine layout, exits, mezzanines, tank and pump-room positions and fire-tender access should be frozen together, then issued to the architect, the factory-plan consultant and the fire designer. A change in one drawing after submission usually means re-submitting the others. Our guide to factory licence and plan approval covers the factories-inspectorate track in the northern states, and the fire NOC guide covers the fire track.

What does the electrical inspector need before energisation?

Regulation 45 of the CEA (Measures relating to Safety and Electric Supply) Regulations, 2023 splits installations at a voltage each state notifies. At or below it, the owner inspects, tests and self-certifies, and sends the report to the Electrical Inspector on the Schedule II form; it counts as received if not acknowledged within three working days. Above it, the Electrical Inspector must inspect and test before supply starts, and the supplier needs the Inspector's written approval. An installation shut down for six months or more goes through the same step again, and additions or alterations need approval or self-certification before they are connected.

In practice a factory with an HT connection should assume inspector approval, and should ask the state which voltage it has notified. Start the single-line diagram, load schedule and the DISCOM application while the building is going up, not after, because testing and inspection come at the end of the programme with no float left. Our CEIG guide lists what the inspector checks.

What changed in 2025 and 2026?

Two things affect the last gates. The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 came into force on 21 November 2025 and repeals the Factories Act, 1948. It requires electronic registration and provides for a factory licence to be issued electronically within 45 days of application, or deemed issued. Existing state rules continue to the extent they do not conflict, and states are framing new rules, so plan approval and licence forms differ by state and are in transition. Karnataka's rules under the Code, for example, were still in draft in 2026, and for Tamil Nadu we found no final rules. Confirm the live forms before you file.

Second, the pollution classification above can move a product to a lighter category. Neither change removes the need to sequence the files; they change which forms you fill.

How does it vary by state?

The gates are the same in every state; the names, portals and periods are not. Our state guides read the primary sources: Tamil Nadu fire NOC, Karnataka fire NOC, Gujarat fire NOC, Madhya Pradesh fire NOC and Telangana fire NOC. As examples of how stated periods differ, Tamil Nadu's DISH charter gives three months for plan approval and 30 days for registration and licence, while Karnataka's department sheets give 60 working days for each. Treat any stated period as the department's target on a complete file.

How Secured Engineers helps

Secured Engineers designs fire, electrical, HVAC and plumbing systems in-house, so the layouts that go to the building authority, the factories inspectorate and the fire service come from one design. Fire NOC, CEIG and DISCOM net-metering filings are done in-house. MEPF and solar can be placed under one contract. We work from offices in Noida (Delhi NCR) and Ludhiana, and we mobilise from them for projects in other states. The company has delivered 535+ projects across 18+ states, with 89.77% repeat clients.

If you hold a draft approvals plan or a set of submitted drawings, we can check the sequence and the consistency between drawings before the next filing. Use the project estimator for a first view of scope, read the full factory approvals roadmap, then send the file by WhatsApp, call +91 70099 85817, or ask for a free proposal.